This project aims to make available online for the first time archive films and audio recordings on the Swedish Mission (Svenska Missionskyrkan) http://www.missionskyrkan.se/ in East Turkistan (Xinjiang), China.
This archive was created by S L James during 2009 with assistance from Dr Enver Tohti and the Swedish Uyghur community as well as Swedish archivists and relatives of the missionaries in Sweden.

The Mission was active in Kashgar, Yarkand and Yengi Hissar in East Turkistan from 1892 until 1938. The films date from 1930 to 1934 and audio recordings from 1955 to 1987.

The audio files on this site feature interviews with members of the Swedish Mission and their relatives recorded between 1955 and 1987. This archive also holds a series of interviews with Swedish diplomat and East Turkistan specialist Gunnar Jarring. General overview translations in English of these interviews are being added as PDFs over the course of 2010.

For further information on the Mission and East Turkistan during the late 19th and early 20th century view the attached PDF book Mission and Revolution in Central Asia by John Hultvall.
Also Professor Linda Benson's attached paper 'China's Muslims through Western Eyes'.

Reviews

Classical Chinese was the main form used in Chinese literary works until the May Fourth Movement, and was also used extensively in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The Hui people developed Jingtang Jiaoyu for representing Arabic sounds with Chinese characters. Classical Chinese has had influence of Jingtang Jiaoyu. Rather than using Standard Chinese grammar, they use the grammar of their dialect and Classical Chinese to read the Arabic sounds out loud.

Literary Chinese is also known as Wen-li, wen-li or wenli. Most Chinese people with at least a middle school education are able to read basic Classical Chinese, because the ability to read (but not write) Classical Chinese is part of the Chinese middle school and high school curricula ;. and is part of the college entrance examination. Classical Chinese is taught primarily by presenting a classical Chinese work and including a vernacular gloss that explains the meaning of phrases. Tests on classical Chinese usually ask the student to express the meaning of a paragraph in vernacular Chinese, using multiple choice. They often take the form of comprehension questions.